History

Where it all began…

What we’re made of, Hall & Woodhouse

Hall & Woodhouse is an independent family company owned and run by the fifth generation of the Woodhouse family. They have been brewing beer since 1777, ever since an enterprising Charles Hall brewed beer for the Napoleonic troops stationed in Weymouth. They use only the finest ingredients, combined with Dorset spring water, to create their award-winning Badger ales.

On top of making all that lovely beer, they also have a growing pub estate with over 250 Business Partnerships and Managed Houses stretching along the South Coast from Devon to Kent. Making sure each of their pubs remains unique and offers a welcoming, friendly, quality experience.

The Old Farmhouse is located in Nailsea, about 8 miles south west of Bristol and about 11 miles northeast of Weston super mare, and historically lies within the county of Somerset. The town of Nailsea was formerly a major glassmaking centre, alongside other important industries including coal mining, tanning, cider making and of course agriculture.

The Old Farmhouse is a 17th century former farmhouse, which is now a Grade II listed building (as of 13th October 1952) and is open to the public as a traditional family pub since 1986.

Prior to this it was known as East End Farm, which was brought in auction on 12th April 1945, and used as a dairy farm by a family who resided here until they sold it to a building company in 1984, who then sold the farm onto Hall & Woodhouse.

The owner of the farm at the time sadly passed away in the 1960’s, but his son and wife were honoured to inform us about East End Farm during their time there before they moved onto to another farm in Somerset.

“my father brought east end farm on 12th April 1945 in action, which was previously owned by Arthur Edgar Alvs… it was a family run farm, a dairy farm, which many people in Nailsea did not know was there as it sat back from the main road…the kitchen(old kitchen) was my mums kitchen which only had a cold tap…the bread oven had not been open for 100years when my dad brought the farm, when we opened it there was various items inside, alongside this a shoe, which is so say for superstition… when my mum passed away we left the kitchen as a museum to her and my wife had her kitchen down the steps (the bar area)…we built the cottage in 1982, which also had a garage on…my wife built a wall alongside the cottage which got knocked down along with the garage when it was turned into a pub…when moving the door from my wife’s kitchen we found bones under the flagstones which I took to my friend who worked at Bristol museum…he said they were just cattle and pig bones which were used to level the flagstones in those days…there were three or four wells on the farm which are no longer there one of which would be around by the toilets….I had plans to turn the farm into a pub and had plans drawn up, when I sold the farm to the building company it was then sold to Hall & Woodhouse who I handed my plans over to…I don’t know if they used any of the plans mind…we moved out of the farm in January 1985 to another farm that was not surrounded by houses but close enough to the farmhouse that we can still visit from time to time…when it was first opened as a pub I was given the honour to pull the first pint”